“A. When he feels and sees, by experience, that the Spirit which made the flesh doth govern and rule king in his flesh. And so can say, I rejoice to feel and see my flesh made subject to the Spirit of Righteousness.
“Q. But may not a man call Him God till he have this experience?
“A. No: for if he do, he lies, and there is no truth in him. For whatsoever rules as king in his flesh, that is his God....
“Q. But I hope that the Father is my Governor, and therefore may I not call Him God?
“A. Hope without ground is the hope of the hypocrite. Thou canst not call Him God till thou be able in pure experience to say thy flesh is subject to Him. For if thy knowledge be no more but imagination or thoughts, it is of the Devil, and not of the Father. Or if thy knowledge be merely from what thou hast read or heard from others, it is of the flesh, not of the spirit.
“Q. When then may I call him God, or the Mighty Governor, and not deceive myself?
“A. When thou art by that Spirit made to see Him rule and govern, not only in thee but in the whole creation.... Wait upon Him till He teach thee. All that read do not understand; the Spirit only sees truth, and lives in it.”
Winstanley subsequently explains his views at considerable length. True knowledge, he contends, comes from within, not from without. “The whole Scriptures,” he maintains, “are but a report of spiritual mysteries held forth to the eye of the flesh in words.” The Gospel he explains to be “the Father Himself, that is, the Word and glad tidings that speak peace inwardly to pure souls.” The writings of the Apostles and the Prophets he regards as “the report or declaration of the Gospel, which are to cease when the Lord Himself, who is the everlasting Gospel, doth manifest Himself to rule in the flesh of sons and daughters.” Concerning Baptism he says: “I have gone through the ordinance of dipping, which the letter of the Scripture doth warrant, yet I do not press anyone thereunto, but bid everyone to wait upon the Father, till He teach and persuade, and then their submitting will be sound. For I see now that it is not the material water, but the water of life; that is, the Spirit in which souls are to be dipped, and so drawn forth into the one Spirit; and all these outward customs and forms are to cease and pass away.”[65:1] As regards prayer, he contends that no one should pray “until the Power within thee gives words to thy mouth to utter, then speak, and thou canst not but speak.”[65:2]
It is, however, in a subsequent pamphlet, The New Law of Righteousness, that Winstanley more fully expounds this characteristic Quaker doctrine, and summarises his deeply philosophic views concerning silence as the necessary precursor of all true prayer, as follows:
“All these declare the half-hour’s silence that is to be in Heaven (Rev. viii. 1). For all mouths are to be stopped by the power of Reason’s law shining within the heart. And this abundance of talk that is amongst people by arguments, by disputes, by declaring expositions upon others’ word and writing, by long discourse, called preaching, shall all cease (Jer. xxxi. 34).